← The Think Media Podcast
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- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
Hey, before we jump into today's episode.
- [00:02]
Alex Catoni
I've got a question for you.
- [00:04]
Sean Cannell
Is your YouTube channel failing to bring in consistent leads and sales? If you'd say yes, then we are hosting an event that's probably perfect for you. I want to personally invite you to join me and the Think Media team this February in Las Vegas for an exclusive in person YouTube growth mastermind. Seats are limited, so make sure to secure your ticket today@thinkmedia media mastermind.com and over an intensive day and a half, I'll show you my proven strategies for creating videos that attract the right audience, generate real revenue and drive more sales. You'll craft your next winning video, learn the latest strategies for leveraging AI and attracting high quality leads, all without the.
- [00:47]
Alex Catoni
Complex funnels or expensive ads that can be so frustrating.
- [00:52]
Sean Cannell
Since we keep this Mastermind small and intimate spots are extremely limited and and filling up fast. So secure your spot for February 21st.
- [00:59]
Alex Catoni
Through the 22nd, 2025 and you can.
- [01:02]
Sean Cannell
Apply for this event at thinkmediamastermind.com before the seats are gone. Now, as of recording this, we're looking for about 10 more people, so grab your seat now. All right, let's jump into the podcast.
- [01:15]
Alex Catoni
Welcome to the complete YouTube starter guide for business owners.
- [01:20]
Guest Expert
Your customer is on one side of this raging river and you're on the other side with something they desperately need. In order to help them get from one side of the river to the other. It's your job to bring them over this bridge that you are building with your content.
- [01:36]
Alex Catoni
This is a deep dive masterclass and we're going to be Talking about why YouTube is really the smartest platform for business growth. How to maximize your reach and create content, especially when you have limited time.
- [01:52]
Guest Expert
YouTube is a search engine. People just want their answers. If you have a business where you are the face of it, you already have the dynamics of a business that's set up to win in 2025. And now it's just leveraging these tools to let your audience in on who you are and how you can help them.
- [02:10]
Alex Catoni
Now, our guest today is Alex Catoni from the Copy Posse. She's on a mission to de douche ify the Internet and is really an expert in marketing, branding as well as copywriting. So when it comes to having powerful scripts, powerful titles, she's helped over 500,000 copywriters and entrepreneurs from around the world ignite their businesses with her fun and empathetic approach to branding, marketing and copywriting. And she has over 361,000 subscribers on YouTube. So this is kind of one of my dream guests because she's got her own products, her own services, she's running a team, she's scaling her business, but she understands the power and importance of YouTube. And so if you're a business owner that's ready to get more leads and customers, you're going to want to save this one, stick around until the end, maybe even take notes because this is going to be a deep dive masterclass. Alex, welcome to the show.
- [03:02]
Guest Expert
I am so thrilled to be here. Thank you for having me.
- [03:06]
Alex Catoni
So big question, why should business owners invest into YouTube this year?
- [03:11]
Guest Expert
I mean here's the thing, now more than ever, personal branding is becoming so, so important. I personally believe that customers are at an all time high when it comes to mistrust and distrust and they are looking for leaders to help guide the way, kind of like navigate this minefield of fake, fake and you know, AI generated content and, and, and mass production at this level that has become almost exhausting. I know I for one am feeling a bit exhausted by the amount of content being published online. And so, so many people are looking for those leaders, those voices that they can look up to and say, okay, here's the person that I can trust, here's the person that I want to learn from. And you know, YouTube to me is just such a predictable platform as a creator because at its bare bones it is a search engine. So if you are genuinely solving people's problems, it's impossible not to win with YouTube as long as you're super clear on who you serve and how you can help them.
- [04:23]
Alex Catoni
One of the biggest challenges is I think if someone's clicked on this video, they want to do YouTube, they want to get the benefit of building a community, generating more leads and customers. But like all entrepreneurs, there are so many competing things for their attention. You're trying to lead, you're trying to build out product, marketing, sales and then you also have all these other social media platforms. So I guess why prioritize YouTube and how much time per month does it take to succeed and then maybe briefly scales of team or support and where did you start are if you're starting out, you have a smaller business, where can it scale to if we focus on this, on this idea of ROI that's on business owners minds and how much time it takes.
- [05:12]
Guest Expert
Yeah, and that's a question I get a lot because I won't lie when it comes to barriers to entry, creating a piece of long form content on YouTube. Of course those of you who are familiar with YouTube, know there is YouTube community, which sort of is like an Instagram type of feed. Then you have YouTube shorts, which are the short videos. And then you have the main, you know, YouTube content that goes on your channel. And this is what I call long form. And when I say long form, I'm not talking like an hour, you know, like this. But, but long form content is great. To me, long form is anything that's like five, let's say five minutes or more. You know, my average video goes from 8 to 12 minutes. And I'll rewind a little bit and talk about how I started, because when I started my YouTube channel, I had a copywriting and marketing business. I was working behind the scenes with a lot of clients, writing copy full time, planning marketing funnels. I had a small agency with a team of writers and so I was busy. I mean, YouTube was like almost felt like an impossible mission when I was just getting started. And I completely understand why people feel that way because it, especially if you are used to being behind the scenes. Like I was in my business with zero brand, zero following, truly starting from scratch in 2019, all I had were some good stories from being in the industry for over 10 years and working with clients. And I had a very clear reason why and who I was serving as I started my channel. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. But I started by creating one piece of video content a week and what that looked like in the beginning was me sitting in front of my camera and kind of rambling. And I did that because I learned from another great YouTuber friend of mine who was like, yeah, just make sure that you like, have your talking points and just go with it. And I realized like, that was not working for me because my videos would end up being so long and I would have to cut out so much. And it was a lot of work for my video editor at the time, who happened to be my brother. And I'm sure he hated his life editing his sister's videos. But after about four to six videos, I started scripting out my videos word for word. And that's something to me is a process that you get faster at it with time and it becomes something that you can then outsource and get support with from a team. And why I love YouTube specifically is it's not a, a personal branding platform in the way that Instagram is where it really is about kind of showing up frequently and posting Instagram stories and letting people peek into your life. And, you know, it's a Little bit of a crapshoot, at least how I feel about Instagram. I know Instagram is an incredible tool, but when I look at YouTube, I'm like, I can see that people are searching these questions. I have an answer to it. I am going to write a script. I am going to batch write those scripts, come up with four scripts, sit down in front of my camera and my teleprompter. And I've gotten to the place now where I can record about one video in about 25 minutes. And those are, you know, four videos a month. That's two hours that I'm in front of my camera. And in the beginning, that was all I did in terms of content creation. So I would write the blog post, I would. Or write the script, sorry. I would record it, I would send it to my video editor who would clean it up and then I would post it on YouTube. I would send out an email to my very tiny list and I would post about it on Facebook and Instagram and that was it. And that's all I could commit to back then. Like one post a week. And that's still what I do on YouTube, but one post a week, even everywhere else on my social channels. And so I do think it is a scalable process and something that can be very rinse and repeat in your business.
- [08:59]
Alex Catoni
And if you remember back to that time, what kind of views were your videos getting and what would you say the ROI was? Was your email list growing? Were you able to attribute customers?
- [09:08]
Guest Expert
Yeah, good question. I had nothing to sell when I started my YouTube channel other than my high ticket services. Right. So I will be the first to admit that I went in without a real strategy. All I knew was that I had this calling to talk more about the marketing industry and what I was seeing happening. And I wanted to support other copywriters like me who felt like this world was only for men, basically in their basements and being like, what about me? I love to write. And so I was very connected to who I wanted to write for. Uh, but I broke all of the marketing rules because when I started creating my content, I had no email list. In fact, it was probably a couple of months in that I finally started to put a CTA in my description. That was the very, very juicy CTA of join my email list. I didn't even have a lead magnet at the time, but I thought, I'm just gonna put it here and hopefully people will join. And again, that's the other beautiful thing about YouTube is that once someone watches you on video, whether it's one video, two video, three videos, they feel like they know you, they feel like they can trust you more. They want to know more. And so they got on my email list, not in droves. By the time I did my very first program launch In January of 2020, I only had about 2,300 people on my list, but did almost six figures in that first launch. So the answer is my ROI for those first 10 months was no, I'm gonna say eight months. Because then I started monetizing on YouTube, which means YouTube starts paying you. And that would have probably had me break even, but I was spending about $500 a month on a video editor and that was all I could really afford. I couldn't, I couldn't pay for anything else. I couldn't pay for ads, I couldn't do any of that. I was doing my videos on a crappy SLR camera. Now your iPhone would be like so much better than the camera. I. And I paid my video editor to edit the videos. And that was it. So that was. I started my channel in February of 2019. I hit a thousand subscribers. I remember it so well, cuz it was my birthday in August and it was like the best birthday gift. I'd finally hit a thousand subscribers. So to answer your question about what kind of views I was getting, I mean the first video got like 200 views and I thought I had made it. And then I realized those are just all my friends and family members, like giving me a vote of confidence. And then my. It felt like I was screaming into the void for a good four months. And then I just slowly started to pick up some traction and hit a thousand subscribers in August and then monetized in October of 2019. And by that point my, my channel was really starting to pick up speed. By December I had about 10,000 subscribers. And then in January I did that first launch. So it started real slow in the beginning and was definitely an both time and money before I saw any returns.
- [12:10]
Alex Catoni
Man, I love this mindset though, to think about, okay, you're being consistent. One a week, you've got a plan, you've got a workflow. There's really a whole year up to a launch, eight months to getting monetized for others, it takes longer. It might also go faster, but it's not overnight. And there's also. You also aren't casual. I think one of the most missing pieces of a lot of people is they're like, it's a new year. I'm launching a YouTube channel. I'm launching a video podcast and consistency means they post for three weeks and then they fall off and they get busy. There's just something so powerful that you really stuck to being consistent and had even this mindset of at least like a year doing it. And it's so cool to hear that. Then that led up to a launch. And of course, as we dive into the five steps on how to turn any business into a YouTube success, if you had this information, you could go faster by being a part of this podcast and learning from our mistakes. And maybe from day one, starting from more strategy, starting with more strategy. So let's talk about it. You actually have five steps that business owners should know when it comes to starting a YouTube channel, right? And the first step is select your niche. Can you break that down? What that means? Are you a business owner or serious content creator that is struggling to crack the YouTube code? Are you feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or just plain frustrated with slow growth? If so, then our new one on one coaching program@viral video coach.com is your premier ticket to YouTube success, becoming the authority in your niche, attracting engaged leads and loyal customers.
- [13:45]
Sean Cannell
We offer one to one coaching with.
- [13:47]
Alex Catoni
Our YouTube experts that'll help you get.
- [13:49]
Sean Cannell
Results fast and a supportive community that's cheering you on.
- [13:53]
Alex Catoni
So if you're ready to stop wasting.
- [13:55]
Sean Cannell
Time with trial and error and to.
- [13:56]
Alex Catoni
Stop leaving money on the table, then head to viral video coach.com to apply to see if you qualify for our coaching program. But heads up, this offer is not for everybody. It's only for serious content creators and entrepreneurs that are ready to take action. So if that's you, head to viral video coach.com to apply or click the link in the show notes. All right, let's jump back into the episode.
- [14:21]
Guest Expert
I remember when I started my channel and I told someone that I was doing a channel on copywriting for copywriters. Now I speak to business owners as well. But in the beginning I was like, I'm talking to myself. Five years ago, so many people told me, I want to say so many people, but a few people said to me, that's really niche. Like, don't you think you want to do just more general marketing? Because that's how I know you. Because people knew me as being a marketer first, which I was. But I also did copywriting for my clients. And I was like, yeah, maybe. Like, do I just talk about general marketing? And you know, I don't have to tell everyone listening to this that general marketing advice online is, you know, everyone's everyone's doing it, and it can be a lot harder to stand out. And so I knew exactly who I was speaking to. It was to the women. And of course, I have men in my posse as well. But I was speaking to women who had a passion for writing and had no freaking idea that they could turn that into an income stream because they had never seen anybody do it except Carrie Bradshaw on Sex in the City. And how the heck does she do it, right? She's writing for this big, like, publication or whatever. And so I really kind of like sunk my teeth into that where I knew I wanted. Yes. My mission was to deduce if I. The Internet. I mean, at the time, I didn't use those words, but it really was to sort of redefine an industry that had been so dominated by, by men to kind of tell women, like, hey, you have a place at the table here. You have wisdom to share, and businesses are out there looking for you. In fact, as a copywri, as a woman copywriter, the number one thing I would hear from my clients was, do you know any other amazing women copywriters? Because I was fully booked. I had a wait list of months. Like, I couldn't take on any more work. And I thought, oh, my God, this is crazy. I don't know that many other women copywriters. I think I knew, like two or three. And I knew so many, you know, men. And so I thought, man, there are so many women out there who need to learn this skill set. And I do believe that when, especially now, when people are looking for a leader, they're wanting someone who has the specific personalized advice that they want. Because everyone is looking for a reason to count you out now more than ever, right? There's so much information online, like, it's. It's exhausting. And there's a lot of people who do what you do, and there's a lot of people competing for that same audience's attention. So the more niche you can go with exactly who you help and, and why, the more success you're going to have. And so a formula that I love to teach is very, very simple. I help X with Y. And if your I help X with Y is I help anyone learn basically everything when it comes to marketing, that's when you know you have a problem. And so some of the most successful channels that I've seen, and I won't use a marketing example, but I'll use other examples are, you know, I help high anxiety women with. Or I help high Stress overachieving women with their anxiety through yoga practice, or I give prenatal and postnatal exercises to women with back pain. Like, the more specific you can be, the more you will find, like, those dream clients who will not only subscribe to your channel, but they will, like, eat up everything you put out because they finally feel like they have a place where they belong in this craziness that is the Internet. So I just think the more niche you can go in the beginning, the better. And then the beautiful thing about that is as your audience starts to grow, as your authority starts to grow, as your community evolves naturally, they will want to learn more from you. And so once you get to that kind of, that critical mass, that's when you can start broadening a little bit to serve different segments of your audience. But the way to grow fast is to be super specific. Even though we all know you know a lot of things, what's the. What's the tip of the spear that you can really use to start a channel and start strong?
- [18:30]
Alex Catoni
One of my favorite quotes is, it's better to be. You don't want to be a wandering generality. You want to be a meaningful specific. And I love this idea of selecting your niche and picking out a topic that you're going to focus on. And it's scary because sometimes I feel like it's like, man, if I niche down, I'm not going to be able to reach people. But oftentimes the opposite is true. In a sea of sameness, you're trying to stand out, as Seth Godin says, and be a purple cow. Talk a little bit about channel identity and maybe even branding. You know, before we get into number two, is there other aspects of not just knowing I help X with Y? I know who my target audience is. I know what problem I solve for them, and I've articulated that clearly, and my content demonstrates that. But what are some other things as a branding expert that you think about can help stand out when there's just so many different entrepreneurs and content creators out there with YouTube channels?
- [19:25]
Guest Expert
Yeah, I mean, I. I think that that's huge. When I started the Copy Posse, I was so excited by it because I had been in the industry for well over a decade writing copy behind the scenes, and it frustrated me to no end how much people were ignoring the importance of branding. I can't tell you how many, like, bro masterminds I've gone to or been in or events where someone starts talking about branding on stage and everyone just sort of glosses over because for the longest time it was seen as this, like, airy fairy thing that didn't really impact roi and it didn't really impact the bottom line because it was harder to measure. I remember even going back to social media. When social media first started coming on the scene. I remember being in a mastermind and this wickedly smart woman was talking about social media and everyone was just berating her with questions like, what's your ROI on that? And what's your click through? And this and that. And gosh, like, it was just like this newfangled thing that everybody was so skeptical of. And now more than ever, I think brand identity is a huge piece to the puzzle because I don't have to, like, tell all of you listening that there are many people who teach what I teach to a very similar audience online. Like, definitely, you know, I haven't invented copywriting. I haven't invented this idea of marketing. So I invented. Was so excited building the copy posse because I got to build a brand that felt fun and felt like how I wanted to show up, all the way down to my branding colors, to the lightning bolts and the tigers, to the backdrop behind me, which didn't start like this and started much simpler than this. To the way that I communicated my mission and why I do what I do. To me, that was really, really important. So when you are looking at other people who do similar things to you, really kind of asking yourself, how can I be different and how can I call out what's not working? And you know, you've noticed me say things like, bro, marketing. And that's because my mission is big around calling out that old school mentality. And when I started doing that, there was a whole bunch of people who, who were like, finally someone's talking about this marketing that doesn't feel good and is there a better way? And so, you know, getting clear on how you want to show up and how do you want your brand to be perceived? You know, what language are you, are you using? All of that is so, so important and helps create that sense of loyalty amongst your community because that's what you're doing when you're building a YouTube channel. You know, I think a huge mistake that marketers make. And again, like, it just goes to show, like the mentality is, you know, I have a lot of marketers who say to me, I've been thinking about starting a YouTube channel. And I'm like, that's awesome. You should definitely do that. I love YouTube, you know, and they're like, yeah, I have all of this footage from this, these other programs and these other events and like all this footage just laying around and I'm just going to upload it and I'm like, whoa, like you're totally missing the point. Because YouTube, I mean they're calling it the next generation studios. Like YouTube is surpassing a lot of these crazy big studios that produce, you know, television shows and things like that where people are opting to sit in their living room and actually watch YouTube on their TV. And I can't remember the stats off the top of my head, but you could totally look this up, Sean. The billions of hours that a household spends on average watching YouTube on their televisions, which to me just points to. People are really hungry for that sort of one to one conversation and YouTube needs to be treated like that. It can't just be, oh, I'm gonna upload all this random content that I have laying around and expect that that's gonna help you build authority and build a brand on YouTube.
- [23:22]
Alex Catoni
Yeah, that stat is. YouTube is more popular than Netflix even with a larger share of TV viewership and household reach.
- [23:30]
Guest Expert
That's crazy. More than Netflix.
- [23:32]
Alex Catoni
Yeah. It looks like a billion hours a day is total.
- [23:36]
Guest Expert
That sounds right.
- [23:37]
Alex Catoni
On a TV that people are watching YouTube. So that's a man. That's such powerful stuff. You know, I am curious if you have any favorite books that might help people go deeper in marketing. There's a book called Primal Branding and it talks about, it's particularly great for content creators. It talks about your story like you know, you, you. When you're building a brand, what. How do you telling your story? What are your creeds? Language? What are your icons? Those images? What are the rituals of your community? Who are the pagans, AKA the haters? Who are your enemies?
- [24:08]
Guest Expert
Like that. I have to read that one.
- [24:10]
Alex Catoni
What are your sacred words? And then also about the leader, which it might be sometimes Russell Brunson talks about that attractive character.
- [24:17]
Guest Expert
Yeah.
- [24:17]
Alex Catoni
Out of that.com secrets conversation, is there any particular. Like do you feel like there's maybe you need to write a book but do you feel like there's any particular good books or resources when it comes to those that want to go deeper in brand?
- [24:30]
Guest Expert
Yeah. So I will shout out my friend Deb Gabor who wrote the book Branding is Sex. I mean even the title, like she knows what she's doing and she has a follow up book that I believe is called Irrational Loyalty. I believe is the title. I really love everything that she talks about when it comes to brand. And I love how she uses kind of big brands as an example, as someone who runs an agency and has worked with a lot of big brands, because to me, I'm so fascinated by those conversations that happen, like in those boardrooms when it comes to building a Persona. And then Dane Walker recently came out with a book called 90 Day Brand Plan, which after a conversation I had with him, he really inspired me to just lean even harder into personal branding in 2025, because I'll be the. I'll be the first to admit that I almost had a stronger personal brand when I was just getting started. And it was because it was just me and I was so in it, and I was obsessed with the metrics, and I was looking at everything, and I was like, just. I mean, my husband literally told me one day, like, you have to stop talking about your YouTube channel. And I was so obsessed with it, and I. And I really put my heart and soul into it. And then I, you know, I built a business and a team and process and operations. And now my commitment for this year is to get back into really having the time and space to bring more joy and fun and playfulness back into my branding and content. And, yeah, I think that that's a great book to read. And he talks about personal brand across all different social platforms. But I think if you have a business where you are the face of it, or you're a solopreneur or you're a service provider or you're doing anything where there's that level of, like, high touch, I mean, you already have the dynamics of a business that's set up to win in 2025, and now it's just leveraging these tools to let your audience, you know, in on who you are and how you can help them.
- [26:36]
Alex Catoni
Well, we got to get into tip number two, but I want to encourage listeners to check out the show notes, and we'll make sure all those great books are linked up. Also, subscribe because Dane Walker is actually coming on the Think Media podcast in the Future. His book 90 Day Brand podcast plan, as well as some of those other resources. And so for five tips of how to turn any business into a YouTube success, number one, dial in your niche. Dial in your brand. Number two, determine your target audience. Explain what this is.
- [27:05]
Guest Expert
Yeah, and I kind of. I kind of let that one out of the bag a little early. With tip number one, it really is sort of the one, two punch with selecting your niche, because, you know, the first step is figuring out what are you genuinely a subject Matter, expert in or something that you enjoy speaking about ad nauseum. Right. Like I always say, you know, when it comes to selecting your niche, what's something that you would talk about if you weren't getting paid to talk about it for a year? Because that's exactly what starting a YouTube channel looks like. At least let's say on average. But knowing your niche is sort of step one. Step two is defining your target audience. And what I mean by that is just knowing so close clearly who you are for. I think that because I so squarely targeted aspiring freelance copywriters, those people who were in a dreaded nine to five who wanted to create more freedom in their lives, I was able to really lean into that because of the life that I had lived before starting my YouTube channel, traveling the world, doing exactly what they wanted to do. And I'll be honest, when I first started, started my channel, I thought I was going to be speaking to business owners who would then hire me for my services. So I floundered a little bit in the very, very early days because I had no monetization plan in mind. Remember, I was going in with no products or services or, sorry, no products, just my copywriting services versus maybe you're listening to this and you already have a product, you already know who you're like, you know, dream client is, your dream customer is. And you know exactly what the monetization path is for me. I was like, I don't know. The only way I know how to make money is to sell my copywriting services. So I'm gonna do videos that speak to business owners and then they're gonna hire me. And then I realized after not, it was probably by, I think the fourth video, maybe the fifth video that I'm like, huh? The only comments that I'm getting on my videos, and there weren't many, were like, okay, cool. But like, how did you do what you do? And I realized like, oh, wait, people want to know how I started my freelance copywriting business. Interesting. Maybe my dream clients aren't hanging out on YouTube. And so that's when I really pivoted. And that's, I think, when the momentum really took off. So if I were to go back and redo it, I probably just right from the get go would have had that clear path in mind and know and known this is who I'm serving. And maybe I would have seen faster results that way.
- [29:40]
Alex Catoni
I also have some powerful points that listeners can apply from your notes. And not only do you want to know who you're talking to determine your target audience, but you also say you really want to start to understand their needs. What are their biggest needs, what are their biggest pain points, and also what are their aspirations. Here at the Think Media podcast, we say the creator who understands the viewer best wins. And sometimes this information might be top of mind for us, but I've personally learned even the longer I do this, that there's still deeper levels to go to have greater empathy, understanding, understanding the language people use, understand what keeps them up at night. So if someone's putting together their simple YouTube plan for this year, they're dialing in their niche. They're dialing in their target audience. What's the power of knowing people's problems and ambitions with a fierce level of clarity?
- [30:37]
Guest Expert
It's, I mean, it's everything. And I don't mean just like going to ChatGPT and asking ChatGPT what, you know, the 10 biggest challenges your target audience is experiencing. While there might be some great ideas in there that you can expand on, the question I really love to ask is, it's kind of, it's kind of like you're digging like you're a archeologist and you're excavating what people truly care about. And if I were to ask, I'll use an example of someone from my community. If I were to ask someone from my community, like, what do you want? They would say, I want freedom. And you're like, great, don't we all? Right, like freedom. Like, yes, we all want time, freedom, money. That's a given. We all want time, freedom and money. Like, tell me one person who doesn't want one of those three things. And so what you'll get is a lot of that surface level stuff. And then if you ask the follow up question, why is freedom important to you? All of a sudden it's like, oh, well, I. I just recently had a child and I am coming to the end of my mat leave and the idea of leaving my newborn at home or at daycare literally feels like death to me. And I want nothing more than to be able to work from home and have the freedom to control my schedule so that I can see my baby grow up. And I just got goosebumps when I said that because all of a sudden it's like, holy, shoot. I swear, a lot. So I'm like trying to tone it down a little, little bit like, holy cow, oh my gosh, that is what they want. Or I asked another student, like, you want more freedom? Why? I want to be able to start a business, to show my parents that I actually can do this and they don't need to take care of me anymore and that I, I don't need their help anymore. And I'm like, oh, wow, that's, yeah, totally. Like, you want to prove your parents, like, right and wrong at the same time. You know, like I told you, I got this. And so it's really how you get to those deeper level questions. And I think we all, you know, can, can talk to aspirations, but the second you get to that next level down, you can start using more anecdotal stories in your, in your content. People listening to that go, oh my gosh, yes, that is what I want. And it just allows you to connect on a deeper level that so much content just doesn't do.
- [32:59]
Alex Catoni
Now, genius question to take it deeper. Which brings us to number three, which is create your content pillars. So what should listeners do on this step?
- [33:08]
Guest Expert
Great question. So I don't know about you, but like, when I start thinking about content creation, it can feel overwhelming, right? Like if I didn't know what I know, and someone said to me, you have to start creating content. Oh, and you have to start creating content on like YouTube. You have to start creating content on Instagram. You have to like, I would be like, where do I start? So something that I teach is this idea of content pillars. And it's almost like you're building a bridge, right? Like your customer is on one side of this raging river and you're on the other side with something they desperately need, right? And in order to help them get from one side of the river to the other, it's your job to bring them over this bridge that you are building with your content. Now this river is like raging with self doubt and objections and insecurities about all the different, you know, things that they could be learning and doing differently and why are you the right person for them, et cetera, et cetera. So I see these content pillars as being the foundation of a bridge that you're building with your audience in order to build trust. They also give you really clear kind of parameters around what you should be talking about and what will ultimately serve your audience. Now, I have screwed this up a few times because like so many entrepreneurs, I get shiny object syndrome. Or someone leaves a comment on a video about something unrelated, and I'm like, yeah, we should do a video on that. And like I do a video and then afterwards I'm like, that felt so out of left field. Like, why did I even talk about that, and while I do think there's a place for, for coloring outside the lines, people follow you and subscribe to your channel because they want more of the same. They want to know that you're the trusted source for whatever it is that they came for. And so coming up with your content pillars is really just five, like buckets or topics that, you know, your audience will need support with. And that could look like, you know, in my case, it's copywriting, marketing, branding. I also do interviews with entrepreneurs to hear more about, like their, their businesses and their tips. I talk about mindset. And so if something falls out of those five categories, I have to seriously audit it and go, is this a little bit out of left field? And every time I've ignored that views are lower or the other, the other end happens where I do a video that gets more views than I want, but with the wrong people. And then you're like, great. You know, I didn't want to get a whole bunch of new subscribers who actually aren't my ideal subscriber anyway.
- [35:47]
Alex Catoni
That's a powerful insight to also consider, not just for structure, not just for building up, being the authority in a specific thing. But YouTube can be dangerous because you might feel inspired to talk about something random, or you might tap into posting YouTube shorts or something which could be the wild west of kind of going viral for abstract or different types of things. And it can bring some dopamine, a dopamine rush of vanity metrics. Whoa, look at these views and subscribers this got. But did you get the right subscribers? That's a super interesting question. When everyone's chasing growth, how do you try to measure that?
- [36:25]
Guest Expert
Yeah, I'll be honest. Like, I, this didn't happen to me on YouTube, but it happened to me on Instagram where I had a reel go viral that even when I was making the reel, I remember thinking like, I hired a content team to help me, which didn't last very long because I was like, I really just want someone to really help me dial in my short form strategy on Instagram. And I did a video and the whole time I was like, I don't love that video. And what do you know, it went freaking viral. My, you know, followers went up. And if I could just reverse that and literally remove all those new followers, I would have, because the quality of my engagement went down, the quality of the conversations I've been having in my DMs went down. And so, you know, this happens across the board. To your point, I know the vanity metrics are Exciting. But you know, you want to be careful not just to, to not just chase those numbers because you're going to end up building a channel that you don't even recognize or a channel that ultimately isn't serving your audience and isn't converting to anything more than maybe some adsense dollars. But not true. You know, clients or customers who are going to get on your email list and purchase anything from you and then, yeah, how I track it, I don't know. I literally like, I try to just recreate content that I know my audience wants. And when something goes, you know, viral with an audience that like it happened on Instagram, like it was kind of this wake up call for me where I'm like, hey, I don't want to color outside the lines like that anymore, man.
- [37:47]
Alex Catoni
That's great. Tip. Okay, so number four is research the competition. So if we've defined and selected our niche, determine our target audience, created our content pillars, now we're going to research the competition. What would be kind of a process for this and what would we be looking for? Maybe how much? Paint a picture for me, Alex. Paint. I set aside some time as a business owner. I've been hustling all week, so I'm going to take a couple hours on Saturday morning. Could I do this in a few hours? And what would I be doing during this research session?
- [38:19]
Sean Cannell
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- [38:45]
Alex Catoni
Whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner, or.
- [38:48]
Sean Cannell
Somebody ready to grow their personal brand, this challenge is your roadmap to success. To register, just go to tube1kchallenge.com we're going to be doing one training session a day for five days and you're going to learn how to get your first 1,000 subscribers and start earning real income. Insider strategies that make viewers want to click on your videos and keep watching multiple different ways to earn money from your YouTube channel, even if you have a small audience. And how to build an authentic personal brand that truly connects with people. But it gets even better. We are giving away prizes every single day of the challenge. You could win professional microphones, lighting kits and premium content creation software. And during this challenge, you're getting access to the exact training that we offer in our $4,000 coaching program, but you're getting it completely for free. And you can start with just your smartphone. So if you're Ready to turn 2025 into your YouTube breakthrough year, go to tube1kchallenge.com to register. That's tube1kchallenge.com or click the link in the show notes or YouTube description to register for our upcoming challenge.
- [39:59]
Guest Expert
I think I share this tip with a grain of salt for a couple different reasons. One, the comparison game can be deadly. And if you are using research and researching the competition in comparison as a way to not get started because you're actually thinking, oh, my God, I can't do better than this person, or, why should I even bother getting started? Because so and so is already doing it. And I hear that all the time. I want to make sure I share that, that researching the competition, it. It's a slippery slope. And it's. It's. Once you start researching, all you then see is more content. That's just like the, you know, the area where you want to create content. And if you don't have kind of like ironclad, like, you know, I'm not going to let this, like, derail me or frustrate me or think, what's the point? Researching the competition is incredibly powerful, and that's really as a way to spot gaps, to see what's working, to read the comment section and to see where people are asking questions where maybe something was left out, it's honestly, to me, just so helpful, because if you are trying to create a YouTube channel in a certain niche serving a certain audience, and there's other people doing it, because surely there is, like, there's. I mean, name me a niche and an audience that doesn't exist yet right now, and there will be other people who do what you do. And so going and literally reading the words of your ideal customers in their comment section can be a really great way to kind of see what they're asking for, what's missing. I also like to see just what kind of videos are popping on a certain topic. So you can go to a YouTube channel that does similar types of content to what you want to do, filter the video based on most popular and most views, and you can kind of get an idea of the type of content that people are searching for on YouTube. Now, of course, another big caveat to that is I'm not saying copy, you know, I'm not saying go to another channel. And just remake the same video with the same title and the same thumbnail and go, okay, great, that's working. Look at it, analyze it and think, wow, that's super insightful. But I actually have some wisdom to share based on this topic. And so I think I can create a video that, that although it addresses a similar issue, I'm bringing my of course, own ideas, stories, case studies, whatever, to the table. And so it's just a great way to be able to pick up on the trends that are happening in your niche and know what's working. There's a tool that I've used called1of10.com. I don't know why it's called that, but it is paid. However, you can type in any keyword and it'll actually pull up all of the trending videos that use that keyword. And so it can be another really great way to, rather than thinking, well, who are the people in my niche? I don't even know. Go and use a tool like that, which will pull up, you know, the videos and actually give you the growth factor of how viral that video is going. It'll say like 10x or 36x and it's a good way to just kind of go, oh, interesting. And I'm not gonna lie. A lot of them I see and I'm like, no, I'm not doing the video on that. Like, that is so out of my five content pillars. Or it is so off brand for me, or they're using fear mongering and hype and like, that's just not my style. So like, of course, like, this is where you get to, as the business owner, decide what feels aligned with you.
- [43:26]
Alex Catoni
And those are some great tips. And if you can go in with the right mindset and not let it derail you, but just learn the lessons, there's so much there. Yeah, one of 10 is a very cool software. We've worked with them a little bit. It, it stands for the goal being YouTube's analytics tell you your last video is 1 out of 10 and you're always trying to beat your previous vest best in the analytics. So that's why it's called that.
- [43:49]
Guest Expert
There you go.
- [43:50]
Alex Catoni
For business owners, there's another. We love Vidiq and we'll link up some of these resources. But I actually wanted to share a free tool that I think is one of the coolest public tools. And I'm curious if you're on the audio podcast, you won't hear this, but I'm curious if you resonate with any of these channels. So if you use View Stats, and View Stats is created by Mr. Beast and his team, you could go to the public free website, look up someone's channel like Alex Catoni, and then click on similar channels. And then what it does is it links to just. Now, what I'm curious is, I mean, I know Marlee Jax as well. For example, she's on there with you. She's much more video marketing, but she's associated with you at some level. Tanya Eliza is another friend of mine as well. She's kind of done network marketing in the past and expanded out of that as well. Do any of these channels resonate with you? Or you're like, no, I don't recognize any of those channels.
- [44:44]
Guest Expert
You know what's funny is I do know Miles. Yeah. But none of the other names. None of the other names ring a bell. So, like, I'm gonna go down the rabbit hole after this and, like, check.
- [44:57]
Alex Catoni
You might do this for yourself, depending on. You actually need a channel large enough to see the data. But I think the other thing we're looking at here would be if you find someone like, you're like, you know, wait, I do copywriting as well. I clicked on this video because I love Alex. And. And, like, is it too crowded? Well, you start with somebody like an Alex Cotone and then check out these other channels and then do it again. And what. Of course I think about adjacencies, because it also. It wouldn't necessarily just be only copywriting, but you might look at other business owners, maybe broader entrepreneurs, and then maybe even you look at Think Media. Like, we talk about cameras, where lots of entrepreneurs watch this, but we're talking about YouTube tips. So the bottom line is the rabbit hole. And if you were, though, to encourage the business owner that wants to move fast and not get stuck how long they should do this with enough information to get started. Give me a start. Stop time that I can put on my Google calendar for my research section, get some ideas, get some tips, and then press record so I don't get stuck doing this too long.
- [45:58]
Guest Expert
Exactly. Honestly, I think in half a day, you could have more than enough information to at least map out a good three to four months of content. Like, it's. It's so easy to get into that place of I need to gather more information before I take action. So, like, give yourself, like, go to a coffee shop, get a coffee, go down the rabbit hole, give yourself a cutoff time, and then map out your first 10 videos, which is the. The fifth tip.
- [46:27]
Alex Catoni
Yes. I love that. So we're gonna get to the first 10 videos. I do want to recommend check out the Show Notes. Use that free tool in View Stats. If I had to choose personally from a YouTube expertise standpoint, and I was gonna invest my money as a business owner, I would grab Vidiq. I believe they're boost Pant plan at $20. It also has the same outlier features that One of Ten has. One of Ten is. Also, I actually pay for all the tools personally because it's my job, I suppose. You know, it's what I focus on. But if you had to pick one, I'd pick Vidiq. But the fact you can use that View Stats tool for free again, this will be a super packed Show Notes episode. All right, so let's get into number five, which is map out your first 10 videos. And in just a moment, I also do want to talk to you just a little bit about how you script your videos. And then the number one thing every business owner needs to be doing on YouTube as we land the plane in a second. But step number five is map out your first 10 videos. How would you do this? Explain this process.
- [47:24]
Guest Expert
So everything I do, and I know you do this too, because we talked about this before we pushed record, is hook first. Hook first, Hook first. The. The only way I can kind of explain the importance of thinking of a hook and a title first is how many times or if this has ever happened to you, let's say you do a podcast episode or you write something, and then you're like, okay, I'm gonna go promote this. And you're like, oh, there's nothing that I wrote or said in this podcast that is a really juicy hook. So thinking about the hook first and then creating the content to satisfy the hook. And so what my process looks like is I, you know, I do this research, I go down the rabbit hole, I come up with, like, my five content buckets. Let's say for my first 10 videos, I'm going to do a video in each one of those buckets. Okay, great. Again, might do a little bit of keyword research. And here is the thing I highly recommend. In the beginning, like, SEO is important when you're just getting started on YouTube, even though it is so boring. Because I think as a copywriter, I'm always wanting to get really fancy with titles and open a loop and have a cliffhanger and all that. But to get traction early on in YouTube, before YouTube knows, who are you and who do you help and who should I serve your content to? They're really looking to see what you know, what keywords you're using and what you're talking about in your videos. And so that's where a tool like Vidiq is so helpful, is you're like, okay, let's say I want to do a topic or a video on Mindset. And you might go type mindset into Vidiq. And then it'll suggest other content, it'll suggest certain titles which will then trigger this thought, like, oh, I could totally talk about that. And it reminds you of something. And so coming up with the, the hooks first. For those first 10 videos, once I come up with the hook, I sit down and I write the thumbnail text right away. Like, I almost want to see the video before I've even recorded it. It's so important to have a little bit of that, like, future thinking, that future pacing of how do I want this video to look? How do I want it to feel in the thumbnail? Do I want to be holding anything? Do I want to be pointing to something? If so, what is it? And then I need to incorporate that into my video. So it's all created with the, both the written hook and the visual hook in mind first. Then I go out to scripting my video word for word. And then I go in and I add comments for visuals that I want to have pop up during the video. So if I am referencing something or talking about a student or doing something, I make sure I put in all of those cues. Because if you, if you are able to do all of that before you actually go to record, you're able to talk about like, oh, and this is. And say this is. And you know that you're going to have something pop up on the screen when you say that. So it just creates a better experience for the viewer. And then I do that. I batch, I map out my 10 videos, I batch, create two to four. I used to be way better at doing four all the time. Now it's like whenever I can get one done and then I record.
- [50:31]
Alex Catoni
And you are scripting and reading from a teleprompter. Yeah, always recommend that.
- [50:36]
Guest Expert
I mean, like I said, I do because I tend to ramble. And so while I do think it sacrifices a little bit of my preference personality, I'm going back to that notion that YouTube is a search engine. People just want their answers. So I try to keep my content concise and very, very scripted in that way.
- [50:57]
Alex Catoni
Do you happen to know what gear you're using if someone's thinking about, like, how do I set a teleprompter up? Did you buy a nice one? Do you use like one of those little phone screw on ones?
- [51:04]
Guest Expert
Yeah. So the one I have is called the parrot, like the bird parrot teleprompter. It basically. Well, I can take it off, I mean, for those watching on video, because I'm not using a teleprompter right now. I can show you. It just looks like that. So it slides right on to the front of my camera. Then there's a little, like, drawer here. I have an extra iPhone that I just keep in my office that basically I only use as a teleprompter. And it slides right in. And that's it. I have a little remote and it. Practice makes perfect. I think in the beginning I felt like Ron Burgundy, and now I'm a little better at it.
- [51:40]
Alex Catoni
And I would actually. I have that same teleprompter for me. If I shoot ads, sometimes sales videos, vsl, and everything's written out. That is the. I just screwed onto my camera, just as you said. And so that's another thing that we will make sure is in the show notes. It, you know, it takes a little. I think there's some extemporaneous opportunities as well. Where you could communicate without a teleprompter Depends on your own style, your own time. I think nothing. It's its own skill set to learn how to do it naturally. And that's certainly how you come across in your videos. But when we think about adding value to the viewer, it's like being long winded, you know, is because you didn't prepare, but then they have to sit through it. Whereas the reverse is being crafted and specific. I mean, you have over 300,000 subscribers. So success leaves clues that you crafting your content, going through this process. You've got a multi million dollar business. You're listening to this. What are you hoping to achieve? Do you want a multi million dollar business? There's something about mastery. So anyways, if that. That's a really cool way to do it. The parrot teleprompter I need. I should get a separate phone because I use my phone and then calls come in. I'm like super frustrated. I should have turned it onto airplane mode. And I just download like this prompter plus app, whichever one I could find. And so title and hook, a little bit of keyword research, script it out. You might have 10 weeks planned, but when you sit down and film, you're shooting two to four In a batch. And I would encourage. Of course, there's different formats. You don't have to do Alex's style. You might do an interview like this. And if you prepare, neither of us, of course, this is not a teleprompter, but there was a lot of prep that went in here. And if anything, my 2 cents would be at least have maybe your hook scripted your points articulated with a few notes and work off of an outline at least, and then that could help you then sit down and record. Let's go a little bit deeper into now scripting out a video. There's basically seven steps if I want to kind of outline a video that I have. And the first one is the hook. Walk us through these of what? Like, if we now want to structure a great video from a copywriting legend like yourself as well, how can we have a YouTube script formula that turns viewers into customers and grows our channels?
- [54:00]
Guest Expert
Awesome. Yeah. So, you know, I think the most important lesson to talk about here is this idea of an open loop. And many of you watching this probably know what an open loop is, but it's a concept that, like, seeks the brain, where the brain seeks out to. To get some sort of conclusion for this loop that's been opened in their brain. And I think a really big mistake that people make when they do YouTube content, or any form of content is they open a loop and then they immediately close it. So that might look like me opening a loop in the headline. And then the first 20 seconds of the video. I'm telling you what you came for. So what I. How I like to script my videos. The first thing is the hook. But I already talked about the title, like, the written hook and the visual hook. Well, there's also the pre. Pre bumper, I guess you could call it the pre bumper hook, which is the first five to ten seconds of your video. Now, what you want to do there is you want to reiterate that hook, which is why they're on your video. Again, a big mistake that I see people make is they, like, you know, that people are clicking the video because of the title and the thumbnail, and then when they get on your video, you just start randomly talking about something else, and they're like, whoa, that's not why I. That's not why I came here. So I. I truly just reiterate what I said in the title, but in a way that's more, you know, mysterious, I guess you could say. Like, I never say, hey, guys, as my first lines in my video. I say, skip the pleasantries until after the bumper. I go right into, do you want to know the five marketing trends that are taking the world by storm in 2025? You are definitely not going to believe. Number one, stick around to the end. You know where I share that. And then I say, keep watching. And then. So that's the hook, right? It's reiterating why they're there. You're opening a loop to get them to keep watching. Then it's the bumper, which is the, you know, music, the whatever you want to have. Which again, I've heard people say, like, what's the point? I personally do it because I think one, it elevates my brand. It makes me human, it makes me relatable. It also tells my audience immediately, like, the type of person I am. I'm like walking down the street, I'm like, it's very chill. It's very Sex and the City Ask. That was the, the inspo for it. Definitely need to update it. Haven't updated it in five years, but it works. That's short though. But again, reinforcing, right? People learn to love it. Like, I used Royal Royalty free audio. I've heard it used in commercials and stuff before the exact same tune. I'll literally have people send me DMs with a video of the commercial being like, they're using your music. It's funny how even just one jingle, people are now associating with my brand. So I think it's important. Then after the bumper, that's when I really quickly, as quickly as possible, try to say the things that are important to say at the beginning of the video. I say, always. Every video I start the same. I say, hey, posse, what's up? It's Alex. And in this video, I'm going to talk about the blah, blah, blah. So there I am, reinforcing the hook again. But then I'll say, if you're new to the crew here on my channel, I talk about, tell them what they're going to get. So if they are new subscribers, they're like, oh, okay. That is actually something I want to learn more about. If you're new to the crew here on my channel, I share copywriting, marketing and branding tips to help you grow your business online. If that sounds cool to you, go ahead and hit that subscribe button below. And don't forget to ring that bell to be notified when my next video goes live. Like, literally, I could like say that a million times over the exact same way. So I say that as quickly as I can. And then sometimes, and YouTube hates this, when I say YouTube, I mean YouTube people. I'll, I'll put like an intro that has some really important necessary context about what I'm talking about. Every time I do that, people comment and they're like, get to the point. Like people just want you to get to whatever it is you promised. So try to keep the intro as tight as possible. I'll. Then before I get to the content, I'll try to open another loop. Because I know that once I get to the content, people are gonna start dropping off, right? Cause like, they're here for the five things. They'll start dropping off after two things if I'm not. If the first two things aren't blowing their minds. So I try to usually open another loop right before I get to the content that will hopefully get them to stay to the end. So I'll say something like, all right, we're going to dive into the five marketing predictions, my five marketing predictions for 2025. And when you stick around to the end, I'm going to give you, you know, kind of like you did in this podcast episode, John, to stay to the end. And then I go into the teaching points, the frameworks, the 1, 2, 3, 4 fives. And then at the very end of the fifth tip, I try as quickly as possible to wrap it up. I never do an outro. I never recap, never recap. Because what happens, your retention just falls off. Like nobody wants a recap. So I'll literally say the fifth tip and I won't even say, and there you have it. Those are the five. I mean, sometimes I do if it really feels awkward if I don't, but I usually will just go. And if you want to get your hands on that free blah, blah, blah that I told you about earlier, click the link in the description box below to get your hands on that and I'll see you next week with a brand new video. Until then, I'm Alex. Ciao for now. And that's how I end my videos. So it's, it's, it's very intentional with sort of every little segment of the script.
- [59:07]
Alex Catoni
Yeah. So the seven part million dollar YouTube script structure is hook, open loop bumper welcome with a call to action, another open loop content and teaching points. And number seven, a hard close closing fast because people are going to jump off the video anyways. And you know what I love about you talking about the concept of open, open loops is like, you're absolutely right. When people jump on a video, they're so quick to jump off if you don't give them a reason to stay. And more entertainment content. You know, there was somebody who studied 733 Mr. Beast videos who is of course one of the greatest YouTubers. More entertainment content. But they, they discovered this fiction curve thing where there was like crisis, intention and a reason to watch, not just right at the beginning of the video, but through out the video. Sometimes they'd call it raising the stakes. And so I think what's fascinating is a lot of people have talked about, of course, try to hook people and open a loop, but if you can continuously do that in content in a 2025 world, that is such a powerful tip. Data from Meta also revealed from really analyzing people's attention spans that when people click on a video you've got like two seconds, which sounds wild, but it even just speaks to the fact that what are the first words you're saying in your video? How quickly are you cutting to the chase? And then I would say like listeners might be like, this isn't new.
- [60:35]
Sean Cannell
I know there should be a hook.
- [60:36]
Alex Catoni
But let me just encourage you, like triple down on hooks in regards to today's landscape and being that much more intentional with what is seen, heard. And I also like this concept of the bumper because there could almost be an argument where that bumpers were unnecessary or you shouldn't have them. But my opinions kind of changed on this. In a world where there is so much competition, you hit it so strongly. Brand is not talked about enough. So maybe the idea of like, oh, just get to the content, just so rapid fire. But if you're going to have any stickiness to your brand and any superfans that are developed like old school radio is a powerful lesson for us. Jingles, old school advertising, like audio branding, like these things. And so again for that passerby that may be like she's not going fast enough. I'm just desperate for content. I'm out of here. Well, that's one thing, but what about your super fans? What about the people that stick with you? And so I think having a bumper now, my recommendation is that I think you could do like five seconds is a good length for that. That yours isn't. Yours is probably less than 10 seconds.
- [61:46]
Guest Expert
I would say it's definitely less than 10 seconds. I should look at exactly how long it is, but it's definitely less than 10. And unto that point, like this is funny. It's kind of like what people say they want versus what they actually want or like what actually is working and nobody wants a long intro. But I've gone back and I've analyzed all of my best videos that have the highest rate of monetization, where I make the most money, where I get the most leads, and my intros are long. And I'm like, I'm not going to just stop doing that because some douchebags commenting in the comments like this girl needs to speed up. You know, I'm just like, I'm going to keep doing my thing.
- [62:21]
Alex Catoni
So I love that you said that too because man, haydurs math is like, there's the one negative comment. But the data speaks for itself. Sometimes I just see the comment but, but it's like, what's the audience retention curve? What's the like to dislike ratio? I'll get one negative comment and I'll be like, this video is a total failure. Yes. Like the dislike ratio is 98%. If I got 98% on my test in high school, my mom would have been a lot more proud and happy about yet I'm like, oh, Roblox22 didn't.
- [62:51]
Guest Expert
Like me in the video with no picture. Yeah, like who are you, dude?
- [62:57]
Alex Catoni
Yeah, so like that's really great looking at the data, reviewing it as it goes. Okay, so, so we hit the five steps, really the framework for the YouTube starter guide of the five things we need to know the seven steps in your m million dollar YouTube script structure. Really the last question is this most important thing that ultimately, even if you're building a great YouTube channel, you're building on rented land and you talk about why every business owner and every YouTuber content creator also needs to be building an email list. As we just close, let me know a little bit about why this is important and what you do in your videos to do so. And I want to make sure you do have a free resource that is all about list building. I'll make sure that's in the show notes. We could talk about that in a second. But just speak to this big idea of why we've done all this stuff up to this point. But man, we also got to be thinking about capturing our audience and not just relying on a YouTube subscriber. What's the important important of an email list?
- [63:58]
Guest Expert
Oh, I mean it's everything. It's, it's, it's one. You said it like you own your email list. Like you own that asset in your business. You own the right to communicate to them until they unsubscribe and you get to control what they see and they don't see, you know, well, YouTube is better, I think, than platforms like Instagram, where your reach all of a sudden just, you know, tanks or I don't know if you know, but this morning, you probably know Facebook and Instagram crash. And I'm just like, what's happening? Um, luckily I could still communicate with my people through, through email. Um, it's, it's absolutely everything. I mean, it's the most profitable marketing medium, I think. You know, my email list, when I started building it from YouTube, and here's why I think YouTube+email is like, the magic is when people were getting on my email list, they had probably already watched like three to five videos of mine. I'm. I'm kind of guessing, but I'm. I don't put a call to action in every single video. So let's say they watched 3 to 5 and then they got on my video or on my email list. You know, when I did my first launch in 2020 in January, I thought my list was freaking small potatoes compared to some of the lists that I'd been managing as a copywriter and marketer for the 10 years previous. I mean, my, I had clients with millions of, of emails on their list. And so I had kind of a general idea of what your earnings per lead kind of looked like on a marketing list. And if you were getting like $1, you were like, wow, that's amazing, right? And so I'm looking at my numbers and I'm like, I got 2,350 people on my email list. Am I absolutely crazy to be launching a $2,000 program that I'm going to be teaching live? Like, if I apply the metrics that I know I'm going to get one sale, maybe if I'm lucky. And because my list was built from YouTube, people who already felt like they knew, liked, and trust trusted me. Those 2, 300 people were not just like, quick, cold landing page opt ins, whatever. They were people who had, who had consumed my content, related to what I was saying, then took the extra effort to go sign up. So when I did my first launch and made $86,000, my. My earnings per lead was like something ridiculous, like over 50 bucks. And I'm like, oh my God, like, suck on that. Like, I was so freaking, like, excited. And I realized it was because of the power of YouTube. And so I feel like anybody who, you know, wants to start seeing more connection in their audiences, wants to start serving their customers at a higher level, wants to start using YouTube. Building your email list is gonna be the fastest path to monetize off the platform. And you're gonna make way more than YouTube ever pays you.
- [66:35]
Alex Catoni
Yeah, I totally agree. You know, we had Donald Miller on the podcast. He said an email lead is worth over $50 actually, if you're doing it right.
- [66:43]
Guest Expert
And his head copywriter is, is from the posse.
- [66:47]
Alex Catoni
Wow. There you go.
- [66:48]
Guest Expert
And maybe not head copywriter. One of them.
- [66:51]
Alex Catoni
I want to encourage listeners, there's this whole parallel skill set to like, you're starting your YouTube channel, you're wanting to grow on YouTube as you build your email list, though, like, you do want to actually email them. Like, that's actually one of the big. I've seen some people, they start that step and they're like, it's like, when's the last time you sent an email? They're like, I haven't in like, you know, a year. You're like, okay, well, we're going to need to actually email them or be thinking about that, which is a conversation for another time. But you do have a resource. I actually pulled up the page here. 50 subject lines that drive more clicks and engagement. Real data, surprising twists and actionable insights from 50 subject line split tests, which there's a whole art form to email. And this is a free resource you have. So we'll link this up in the show notes and definitely, if you're listening and you are committed to everything we're talking about. Plus of course, you could get more information from Alex. I've learned this. I'm not a copywriter, although I think I'm not that bad. And if you made it this far to clarify what that means too, we're not talking about copyright music or copywritten content on YouTube. We're talking about copywriting with, you know, W R I T E R and, and this. I becoming a better copywriter makes you a better YouTube content creator. Like, I studied all Ogilvy and all these different things help me write better scripts. It helps me think different. So those that subscribe to your channel and follow what you're doing, it's a, it's a huge skill set that'll help every digital entrepreneur and of course business owners listening to this, you probably already understand the power or maybe there's somebody on your team that you need to get following Alex. So we'll link up into the show notes. I want you to give a shout out to your stuff, but grab that free resource. We'll of course link to Alex's channels as well. But anything else that you're doing right now that people can do as far as following you.
- [68:36]
Guest Expert
Yeah, you can just find me on YouTube, of course, Alex Catoni. I'm also Alex Catoni on Instagram. And yeah, it's just always fun to chat about all things. So I'm happy to come back and do a part two.
- [68:48]
Alex Catoni
Yeah, well, I would love to definitely do that because there's so many more questions I have for you. But in the meantime, just thank you for adding so much value today. And Think Media podcast listeners subscribe, like rate, review wherever you watch or listen. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel, and I'll connect with you in a future episode.